﻿Susan H. ("Q") Brinkley

Susan Brinkley is an abstract artist. Her drawings and paintings often reveal a human figure emerging from movement and color within the shapes and textures she creates. Experience her work; look into one of her pieces and find what is familiar.Born in Greensboro NC in 1957, pulled into the art world at a young age she left Greensboro and moved to Richmond VA. There she attended Virginia Commonwealth University earning her B.A. with a Major in Sculpture and a Minor in Painting and Printmaking. She spent the summer of 1981 after college, touring Europe viewing the Renaissance masters’ work in person. She moved to San Francisco in 1984, worked as a Chef in Four Star Restaurants expanding her artistic scope. The last years as a Chef, she earned her M.F.A. in Psychology at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, CA in 1994.Studying Psychology influenced the art Susan produced in the years to come. During the completion of her internships in psychology she focused on creating oil pastel drawings and oil paintings. Building large canvases and filling them with images that are more internal and conceptual. Some haunted, not in the literal sense but as if being pursued. Some striving for something, living with an ever-present problem: unsettled. Her work appeals to the viewers’ emotion and imagination. A series of pieces emerged from this time: abstract and realist paintings. Some of these are held in private collections. Other originals are still available. Reproductions of most are represented here.

From the Artist

When asked, “What are you feeling or thinking when you’re painting?” I give this example. Someone asks me how I’m feeling. I assume I am being asked to focus on one or two thoughts or feelings. I reply with the less complicated feelings than I am actually having, because in that moment when the question is being asked, countless feelings and experiences are taking place: changing and evolving. It would be difficult for me to answer that question completely without my drawing pad, oils or canvas. When I’m painting or drawing I try to broaden my focus and capture that moment. Making art in this way keeps my own emotion and imagination alive. I don’t have words to describe how I create a painting. It’s like a fasting meditation. I think it is hard on the people close to me. I store images like most would store unconscious memories. I access those images making countless drawings with pencil, oil pastel, and computer graphics. I transpose those drawings to oil paintings. Layer upon layer experience upon experience year after year.